Kathleen Wynne touts transportation plans for Durham

Premier says 407 extension ‘priority of ours for the region’

GO Announcement

Submitted photo

DURHAM -- Premier Kathleen Wynne was joined by Glen Murray, the minister of transportation and infrastructure, to announce a plan to provide electric train service every 30 minutes on GO lines. The provincial government made a number of transit and transportation announcements this week, including extending Hwy. 407 from Harmony Road to Hwy. 35/115 in Clarington. April 17, 2014.

DURHAM -- Extending Hwy. 407 all the way to Hwy. 35/115 is a priority for the Liberal government, Premier Kathleen Wynne said.

In an interview Thursday, Ms. Wynne said, “It’s an important project. We want it out to 35/115. It’s a priority of ours for the region.”

It’s been a week of transit and transportation announcements by the government, starting on Monday when Ms. Wynne announced the $29 billion, 10-year Moving Ontario Forward plan. The plan has $15 billion earmarked for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area and $14 billion promised for the rest of the province.

On Tuesday, Glen Murray, Ontario minister of transportation and infrastructure, was in Ajax to announce three companies had been selected to bid on constructing the 407 from Harmony Road in Oshawa to Hwy. 35/115 in Clarington. “That’s an example of the kind of project funded under the plan.”

And, on Thursday, Ms. Wynne and Mr. Murray announced a plan for electric train service every 15 minutes on all GO lines.

The Monday announcement noted funding would come from 7.5 cents of the existing gas tax and the portion of the HST on fuel tax. Ms. Wynne called it “repurposing” the funding.

“We have funded the plan. The revenue tools are in the budget. When you see the budget, you’ll see how we deal with it,” she said.

As for the other projects, funding details will be in the budget, she added.

Ms. Wynne pointed out the government is still committed to eliminating the provincial deficit by 2017-18.

“We’ve mapped out a plan to eliminate the deficit by 2017-18. We can’t do that without new revenue,” she noted.

The government is still committed to The Big Move, a $50-billion plan to expand transit and transportation in the GTHA, Ms. Wynne said.

“Our government’s funding plan is for the priorities in The Big Move. We’re working with the municipalities and Metrolinx. We want the priority projects worked on as soon as possible,” she said.

“We are moving on them immediately. We’ve got to get the budget passed. That’s the wild card in this. We hope one of the opposition parties will work with us. If not, we’ll take this plan to the people as part of our election platform. It speaks to the need for infrastructure across the province,” Ms. Wynne added.

The government’s plan of spending $29 billion over 10 years is a “really important economic growth plan. We’re pleased to put it the budget. There are new dedicated revenue tools in the budget.

“It’s a pretty stark difference in ours and in the Tories’ plan,” she said.

The Progressive Conservative plan would be funded from money already in the existing budget and would primarily be used for subways in Toronto, Ms. Wynne said.

“We know that’s not true. We won’t cut education, health care or social services to fund infrastructure. Infrastructure has to be funded,” she said.

On Monday, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak said Toronto can have new subways and better roads without paying more taxes.

Mr. Hudak said, if elected, his government would set aside a portion of the $12 billion the Province spends on capital and infrastructure annually to be earmarked for new subways with the auditor general having oversight.

“We desperately need to make investments in our subway system,” he added.

Mr. Hudak said the difference between his plan and Ms. Wynne’s is that he is not proposing to raise taxes or introduce tolls and fees to pay for it.

“The last thing you want to do is increase taxes like Kathleen Wynne, the Liberals and the NDP want to do . . . when increased taxes takes money out of the pockets and makes things more expensive. It will slow down our economy and cost us jobs,” he said.

(2) Comment

The Ontario government has been stealing money for decades (they called it gasoline tax) promising to built and improve roads. How is news that a highway owned by a foreign company in Spain and will cost us all BILLIONS to use good news for us?